The "revamped" Australian Wheel of Fortune begins to air next week, and I went to a taping a couple of days ago; I must report that it really hasn't changed all that much.
There's the new host, of course. Nice guy who (as is to be expected) still needs to get settled into his new role. There were a few times when he announced the wrong category for the puzzles, and sometimes the announcer had to correct him for little errors he was making, but nobody's perfect first up.
OK, now that they have the electronic board, the show has introduced flip-up puzzles (I believe that they're called Toss-ups in the US), the start of round two has a prize puzzle. I don't know how the Prize puzzle works in the US (I believe it's a puzzle category and is played like a normal round, with the person who solves it winning whatever the puzzle says), but here it works the same way as a flip-up puzzle, with letters gradually being revealled until one player buzzes in and correctly guesses the answer. The tapings move much faster, and they get through shows much more quickly with the new board in place.
The only other change has been a few new categories being introduced. The only one that stands out in my memory is "true or false" (puzzle is a statement, contestant gets an extra $200 for stating whether that statement is true or false). Other than a couple of minor changes to the set, that's about it.
One interesting thing to come out of the taping is that I spoke to the new host, Steve Oemcke, who twelve months ago was short-shortlisted to host a new version of Sale of the Century. The will-it-or-won't-it-return rumours have circulated on and off since it was "rested" at the end of 2001, and nobody has any idea how serious its return would be. Anyway, he was pretty much down for the job, it looked all set to begin production, but management at the network changed and, two days later, the show was scrapped. I asked him if it was nice to have that little bit of hope for just a moment, and he said "yeah, for that one day when it looked like it was going to happen". The experience being in the running for Sale made the Grundy people aware of him, and led him to being offered the chance to audition for Wheel, to go back to the 7 network (where he had worked previously), and he said that since he lives in Melbourne, it's a bonus to be able to get the free trip to Sydney to record the show.
Incidentally, the whisper is still that Sale will return soon, with former variety show host Daryl Somers hosting. Interesting choice, since he was always known as being stubborn, difficult to work with and viewers and critics had long thought he was past his use-by date. However his show (which aired on the same network as Sale) is still regarded as an Australian institution, network management (which has changed since he was on the air) probably just realises that he did get ratings and a loyal audience, and that his return to TV and the show's return may compliment each other.
